TBNL: Rays future in Tampa looking murky

The already contentious relationship between the Tampa Bay Rays and the city of St. Petersburg continues to worsen.

Considerable time and effort in recent years has gone into discussions between the league, the team, and the city to find a place to build a new stadium for the team. Those efforts finally reached a focal point in 2024 when an agreement was reached.

Then Hurricane Milton struck the city, destroying more than two-thirds of the roof at Tropicana Field.

The hurricane’s destruction also delayed a key city council vote in which $600M in public funding for the $1.3B project was expected to be approved.

That delay, if we’re to believe the Rays, caused significant changes to the timeline in place for the construction of a new stadium which in turn raised the expected costs. The team is now expecting the city to contribute even more.

The city, rightfully, is pushing back.

Mayor Ken Welch even referenced things directly in his State of the City address on Tuesday, according to Eric Fisher at Front Office Sports:

The back-and-forth between the two sides will likely continue over the coming weeks. The deal to build a new stadium is still not finalized officially. The next deadline is on March 31, by which point the team needs to be able to meet “certain logistical benchmarks that will unlock the public money.”

In short, the Rays need to demonstrate they have the financing to make up for the difference in construction costs.

Rays owner Stu Sternberg continues to be non-commital about things.

The uncertainty has naturally led to questions about the Rays’ future in Tampa (which has grown to the 11th-largest media market, something MLB is very hesitant to give up on).

Sternberg insists he has no intentions to sell the team but if a stadium cannot be built in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area relocation will have to be put on the table. It’s possible under those circumstances the league would intervene and force at least a minority share of the club being sold.

Relocation, of course, opens up a much broader discussion. The usual suspects — Orlando, Nashville, Portland, Montreal — will all come up again as surely will other potential homes.

Hu to retire

Only a handful of Taiwanese players have reached the major leagues. Infielder Chin-Lung Hu was the first position player to do so, appearing in 119 games between 2007-11 with the Dodgers and Mets. Used mostly as a defensive replacement and pinch-runner, Hu batted just .176/.225/.259 (29 OPS+) over 214 PA.

Hu’s 2012 was well-traveled. He signed a deal with the Indians with an invite to spring training, was released before camp ended, and agreed to a deal with Philadelphia, only to fail his physical. He’d spent the year playing the independent Atlantic League before returning to Taiwan.

Hu has batted .345/.388/.482 in almost 4,000 PAs over the last 11 seasons in the CPBL. Hu was a part of Taiwan’s World Baseball Classic roster in 2006 and 2017 but missed the 2009 and 2013 tournaments due to injury.

Hu announced he would retire after this season. The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions finished second in the CPBL last season with a 66-53 record.

Bears owner with baseball connection passes

Chicago Bears owner Virginia Halas McCaskey passed away on Thursday. She was 102. McCaskey’s father was George Halas, who was responsible for the franchise’s original founding in the early 1920s (the NFL itself officially formed in 1922). Before shifting his attention fully to football, Halas had a brief career in baseball.

Halas played baseball, football, and basketball for the University of Illinois. He then, briefly, joined the New York Yankees in 1919.

A right fielder, Halas appeared in 39 games in the minor leagues before getting a chance in New York. He got into 12 games, collecting two hits in 22 plate appearances before a hip injury effectively ended his career that July.

For decades, Halas was known to tell people that it was Babe Ruth who replaced him in right field for the Yankees. Baseball Reference’s fielding stats would suggest that isn’t the case, however, as Ruth never appeared in a game in right field that season — he played 110 games in left field, one in center field, six at first base, and pitched in 17 games.

New York employed seven different players in right field during the 1919 season, with most of the starts going to Sammy Vick, whose entire career totaled 706 PA over five seasons with a .248/.305/.335 (76 OPS+) slash line.

Elsewhere, around the league …

• Texas first announced plans to erect a statue of Adrián Beltré outside their stadium last August. Beltré is the third former Rangers player to receive such an honor, joining Nolan Ryan and Iván Rodríguez. The team announced that they will unveil the new statue before a game on August 22 against the Seattle Mariners.

• The KBO’s Hanwha Eagles are set to open a new ballpark with their season opener on March 6. Their old stadium had been the oldest (built in 1982) and smallest (capacity of 12,000) in use around the league despite the team playing in South Korea’s fifth-largest city (Daejeon). The new park, named Daijeon Hanwha Life Ballpark, will hold up to 20,000 and will host the KBO All-Star Game this July.

• John Seidler has been approved unanimously as the Padres’ new control person.